Multidisciplinary artist Liang Shaoji, known for installations and mixed-media works incorporating live silkworms, died on September 14 in Shanghai following an illness, his longtime dealer ShanghART announced. He was 81 years old. Born in 1945 in Shanghai, Liang forged a singular path that joined textile labor, experimental sculpture, and time-based practice into one of contemporary art’s most distinctive bodies of work.
From textile factory to soft sculpture
As a young adult, Liang was unable to join his local arts school because enrollments were barred throughout the Cultural Revolution, and he was instead sent to work in a textile factory. Afterward, in 1986, he was admitted to the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou (formerly the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts). There he trained under the Bulgarian artist Marin Varbanov and took up soft sculpture, the fiber-based movement Varbanov co-established. The technique—three-dimensional art constructed from fabrics, fibers, and organic materials—would come to define Liang’s practice.
The Nature series and global recognition
In 1989, Liang began his Nature series, incorporating real silkworms into installations, video art, and performances. Drawing on his experience as a fabric worker, he allowed silkworms to take over environments, gently guiding their ceaseless silkspinning. He started on an intimate scale—coating objects such as shoes and coffee cups—before expanding to large-scale installations. These silk-encrusted, conceptual works probe time, transformation, purpose, and existence, reflecting Liang’s interests in Eastern philosophies and aesthetics.
His art has been exhibited widely: at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing (1989); ShanghART Space, Shanghai (2007); Hayward Gallery, London (2012); Al Riwaq, Doha (2016); and the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba (2017). In 1999, his works appeared simultaneously in the 48th Venice Biennale, the sixth Istanbul Biennale, and the fifth Lyon Biennale. He won the Chinese Contemporary Art Award in 2002 and received the Prince Claus Award in 2009. Most recently, his solo exhibitions Sea of the Cloud at Shenzhens Sea World Culture and Arts Center (2024) and Silk Radiance at the Liangzhu Museum (2025) featured his largest silkworm installations to date.
Ethics and a guiding philosophy
While some critics voiced concerns over the use of live animals in artworks, Liang regarded silkworms as artistic collaborators and devoted much of his life to rearing them with care, seeing an equality between himself and the insects. He once mused, Consumed by the pursuits of life, am I not a silkworm myself?
Liang Shaojis passing closes a life devoted to art made with life itself—an oeuvre spun from fabric, fiber, and the fragile measure of time.
